Local jokesters The Sugar Beets are back at it; only this time, their stage antics will take place on — you guessed it — April Fool’s Day.
Saturday night, the WOW Hall will hold the April Fool’s Ball, a costume ball that the Eugene venue sponsors every few years. The Sugar Beets will headline the event, with Nectar Way opening.
According to WOW Hall spokesman Bob Fennessy, The Sugar Beets play at the WOW Hall about three or four times a year.
“They always put on some sort of an event around their shows,” Fennessy said. “This time it’s a costume ball, but they’ve done a lot of other weird things in the past.”
Marty Chilla, the Sugar Beets’ guitarist, said the band does have a long history of doing theme festivals, and added that “there’s definitely going to be a lot of surprises on April Fool’s Day.”
The nine-member ensemble, which got its name from a Sesame Street song, has been playing together for about 10 years. They met in the dorms at the University in 1989, and have been entertaining crowds ever since with their unique mixture of acoustic music and pop-flavored dance beats.
“It’s high-energy acoustic dance music,” Chilla said. “We have bluegrass instrumentation, like the mandolin and violin, but we also have keyboards and drums. So it’s sort of like danceable, fun, pop music but kind of rooted in traditional and acoustic music.”
Among The Sugar Beets’ influences are String Cheese Incident and Leftover Salmon, but Chilla also credits “the spirit of the Eugene community” as a major influence.
Friday night’s opening act, Nectar Way, also plays long sets of danceable music that are sure to get the costumed crowd moving early.
“We haven’t actually coined a phrase for our music,” Nectar Way bassist Ari Lindgren said. “But we do sort of … jazzy-groove-rock-psychedelia, I guess you could call it. We’re a jam band, we like to just play on and on forever, all night long.”
The four members of Nectar Way met while attending the University, and have been playing together ever since, and are currently working on their debut full-length album, which they hope to release in June 2000.
The ball will begin at 9:30 p.m. Admission is $7 at the door. Fennessy said that they considered giving people a dollar off for wearing costumes but decided to just encourage people to wear them simply for the fun of it.
“People in Eugene love to dress up in costumes, and Halloween isn’t often enough, so April Fool’s is another great time to costume up,” said Fennessy, who jokingly added, “Of course, a lot of people in Eugene wear their costumes year-round.”
A costume parade will give everyone a chance to show off his or her costumes, Fennessy said. He also indicated to a $1 million prize for best costume, but don’t be surprised if no one goes home a millionaire.
“I think if anybody expects a million-dollar grand prize, they’re about to be April fooled,”Fennessy said.